First Chief Diversity Officer makes plans for UNCW

Casey McAnarney | Assistant News Editor

UNC-Wilmington hired its first Chief Diversity Officer this year, Dr.Kent Guion, and he hopes to change the face of the university to a more culturally diverse one.

The ultimate goal according to Dr. Guion is to create and build a learning community so that the environment of UNCW fosters progress and an atmosphere best for learning.

While studying medicine at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Dr. Kent Guion was interested in reducing disparities amongst differing populations. Guion concluded the ability to communicate effectively across different cultures—cultural competency—showed positive effects on those populations. He believes this idea can work wonders as UNCW.

During his previous job as Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion at Georgia Regents University, Dr. Guion acquired six awards, three awarded grants, and four peer reviewed publications all surrounding the importance of diversity and inclusion in academic settings for the university. One special feat in particular was in 2014 when GRU received the Award for Diversity & Inclusion from the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the Military Officers Association of America.

In the fall of 2015, a study done by GRU called the Respiratory Care Education Annual sought to display how cultural competency education can be a mechanism to address inequities. Data found showed respiratory students less educated in cultural competency, who took the online courses about diversity, improved their educational standings.

This proved important to Dr. Guion, because he believes cultural competency and education go hand-in-hand. In order to reach this community of understanding and cross-cultural interaction, Dr. Guion has formulated a three step plan to enact at UNCW.

The first step of Dr. Guion’s plan is to listen to what is happening on campus. The office is connecting to the campus via future student surveys, staff surveys that went out last month, and faculty surveys that rounded out last May.

“What’s critical about diversity and inclusion in general is being strategic and aligning with where the campus is moving,” Dr. Guion said, “which is why communication is so important.”

Step two revolves around meeting the needs of the campus discussed in step one.

For example, Dr. Guion plans to connect students with internship opportunities. “I have connections to Chief Diversity Officers at corporations and they are investing a lot in building diversity in their areas.”

Planning events and establishing goals is also part of this process. For example, the Upperman African American Cultural Center is going on its 20th year anniversary and Centro Hispano will continue on its tenth year. Dr. Guion expressed that information for events pertaining to these centers will be announced in the near future.

Also, the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is this year. Dr. Guion said the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion office organized a committee to start establishing events for that as well.

The final step Dr. Guion plans to implement is to improve the level of cultural competency at UNCW. “In order to build community, we must learn and understand what community is,” Guion said.

To foster a sense of culture and educate students, Dr. Guion plans to create events that coincide with the DNA Project summit occurring this May.

The DNA Project is a scientific endeavor that uses skin cells to trace back heredity. Guion hopes celebrating a project such as this at UNCW will help to create an awareness of the different cultural backgrounds exhibited at this university.

Eventually, Dr. Guion anticipates that with his plans, the UNCW community will have a sense of cultural competency, be able to focus on the true meaning of inclusive excellence, and embrace building an understanding and interactive community in order to better the futures of all students.